The recipe ingredient/procedure tables are very clever; the simple ones are intuitive, but the recent Beef Stroganof recipe's table was a bit more complicated; how does one go about reading the table? How does one go about making a table for a given recipe?

Ingredients are listed on the left most column. Actions are listed in subsequent columns to the right. The further right an action is listed, the later in time that action should take place. For example, if an action B is listed to the right of another action A, then action B should follow the completion of action A.

Actions span ingredients. Looking to the left, you can see one or more ingredients being spanned by the action. These are the ingredients on which the action should take place.

Ingredient A

mix

mix

Ingredient B

Ingredient C

mix

Ingredient D

In the above example, Ingredients A and B are mixed together and Ingredients C and D are mixed together. Because the mix step is show in the same column, time is unimportant. You can do these two steps simultaneously (with two hands or with a sous chef), or one following the other in any order. Only when the ingredients have been separately mixed should the final mixing step take place because that action is to the right of the other two "mix" actions. It tells you to mix the result of the two initial mixings because it spans all four ingredients.

If the recipe summaries are still difficult to read, simply read the long-winded explanations that are above the summary.

I stumbled upon this website when searching for a Pecan Pie recipe. I have read through the recipe and basically now I want to print it out so that I can refer to it as I cook. That said the recipes are quite lengthy and I find myself looking at the table in which the ingredients and instructions are presented and thinking to myself all I need is a copy of this table.

As an idea would you consider putting a "print this recipe" link and have it pull up a page with just the recipe table present.

Thus giving cooks all the information they need as prompts and saving paper as well! At least until I get one of those internet fridges... like that will ever happen!

That's an excellent idea. I'll put that on my list of things to add to the website. For now, please just select the table and copy and paste it into a spreadsheet or word processor like Microsoft Excel or Word. A little reformatting will be needed, but you can save on the number of pages printed.